AI offers unparalleled insights to the asset management industry

When I co-founded Insig AI three years ago with my colleague Warren Pearson, we did so with a purpose to transform the asset management industry through AI and machine learning. This mission was based on multiple conversations we had with industry leaders where it became apparent to us that while many wanted to get the benefits of machine learning and AI, they simply did not know how to go about it.

Through companies like Citadel and BlackRock, we have seen just how successful machine learning and AI can be. Few in the industry, however, have their resources – to spend big and build teams who can create bespoke in-house solutions – and the challenge for them becomes how to keep up. This is where Insig AI’s suite of “out of the box” products come in. Our solutions allow investment professionals to see, interact, and experience their data in a way they never have before.

A core way in which we do this is through data visualisation. When we take a client’s data and apply our machine learning and AI tools to it, we are giving them the ability to interpret it through multiple lenses in a fraction of the time traditional tools would take. The success our clients are enjoying shows just how beneficial these solutions are. One client’s fund has so far outperformed by 30 percentage points, while another has experienced a 25% reduction in operational costs.

It’s important to note that these results are not reached by machine learning and AI alone, but rather augmenting the portfolio managers’ decision-making ability and judgement. The tools generate insights that may otherwise have gone unseen. Ultimately, however, investment decisions continue to remain with the portfolio manager. One of the major benefits AI and machine learning products gives to asset managers is speed in processing and investigating data. When once testing a hypothesis would once have taken five days to investigate can now be done in a matter of minutes.

As many asset managers know, their first instincts on an investment can often be far from the mark. Machine learning and AI products expedite this discovery process, so when they are wrong – they know it fast. This allows the user to move on to their next hypothesis rapidly. The success here lies in being able to investigate multiple theories at once, in order to find and validate the right path forward. During the discovery process, we also know that when weighing a decision, it is equally important to know the data and decision-making behind it. Therefore transparency is a core pillar of our company and our products are not “black boxes” – you can drill down every step of the way.

As new trends and industry sentiments emerge the ability to be flexible will be as important as ever. As the global asset management spend on AI is set to reach $8.3bn in the next five years, technology will continue to play an ever-increasing importance.

To this end, we are already developing a product called Insig ESG, set to launch in the third quarter of this year, which will develop our clients ESG strategy and execution. While our future products pipeline will look to continue to enhance the ability to mitigate risk, reduce costs, deliver better returns, and deliver products and services more efficiently. The transformative ability of AI and machine learning on Asset Management is no longer the domain of a few, and Insig AI is the perfect partner to help deliver it, now and in the future.